Getting Wild

by Sarah Barrie

“Chosen?” Hannah asked in confusion.

  “Just Ryan being an idiot,” Ella dismissed.

  “A hot idiot.” Lexi said.

  “Did you know he was voted one of In Fashion’s sexiest men on earth?” Jill informed her.

  “No,” Ella groaned, “I didn’t know, I don’t want to know – I certainly don’t want him to know I know. God, the ego: he’ll combust.” When they stopped laughing she added casually, “You know, Lexi, Marco’s not bad either.”

  Lexi sighed, glanced automatically across the street, even though he was out of sight. “Yeah, the whole Latin good looks thing and the sweetest guy you’ll ever meet.”

  “Interested?” Ella asked, accepting her coffee from the waitress that had appeared at their table.

  “In Marco? Why would he be interested in me, more to the point?”

  Ella exchanged glances with the other women. “I’ll bet you fifty bucks…” Jill snorted into her coffee setting off another round of laughter.

  Chapter Nine

  Ella and her companions had been back on the train a full hour before Ryan and his crew turned up. Ella was in the lounge, one knee elegantly crossed over the other, reading with interest through Ryan’s blogs on her laptop when he came in and flopped down opposite her.

  “Hello beautiful,” he greeted cheerfully, “How’d you go?”

  Ella looked up, her stomach giving that familiar little lurch of awareness at the sight of him. “It went very well,” she replied. “We got more than enough good footage. Of course, had I known all I needed to do was film the whole thing from your lounge room…”

  A smile spread over his face. “You read that?”

  “Lexi helpfully pointed it out. I’m reading through your blog now. It’s really good.”

  “Why thank you and ouch – you haven’t bothered to read it before?”

  Ella sent him an apologetic grin. “No. But I’ve read quite a few of your magazine articles.”

  “That’s something I suppose. Did you play with the reptiles?”

  “Play with? No. We filmed at the entrance, then Marco went in and took a few shots of one of the keepers handling various creepy animals. I’m going to voice-over later. How did you go?” she asked, ignoring his teasing grin.

  “Spectacular. I flew a chopper out, got some great clips for the show.”

  Ella just blinked. “You actually flew it yourself? You fly helicopters?”

  “Amongst other things,” he replied with a grin. “Are you planning on dressing for dinner?”

  “Of course…but Hannah’s still on Skype with Ben and the others are in the bar.”

  “So? Go dress.”

  “Oh, well…it’s early…”

  Ryan leant in close. “It’s ok, I won’t let you take advantage of me.”

  Ella smiled nicely and batted her eyelashes. “Isn’t there some sort of medication you can take for those fantasies of yours?”

  He laughed and sent her a look of boyish hopefulness. “Please, Ella…I’m starving.”

  “Alright, give me thirty minutes.”

  * * * * * *

  It took her twenty minutes to meet Ryan in the dining car. He too was freshly showered, and looked, in Ella’s opinion, hotter than anyone had a right to. “Hi,” she greeted with a smile.

  “Hi back,” Ryan murmured, and took his time raking his gaze over her. Everywhere his eyes touched she felt a physical sensation of heat, her body responding as though his hands were already on her.

  “I want to say you look beautiful in that dress,” he continued in the same tone, appreciating her little black cocktail dress, “but honestly, it could be a garbage bag. It wouldn’t make any difference. I just want to take it off you.”

  Feeling flustered, she took a quick step back, broke the eye contact and tried for a light reply. “You’re nothing if not predictable.”

  “You won’t be saying that when I take you to bed.” Ella’s mouth opened and closed twice. There was simply no coherent thought in her head. “Hungry?” he asked, but she wasn’t certain he was discussing dinner.

  “Ah…yes. Yes, let’s sit down.” Before I fall down, she thought, cross with herself. She picked up her menu, pretended to study it while she tried to figure out how she was going to get through dinner without making a complete fool of herself.

  When the waiter appeared, she chose the barramundi and screwed her nose up at Ryan’s choice of kangaroo.

  “Why don’t you tell me about your day?” Ryan suggested.

  Grateful for light conversation, Ella began.

  As usual when they discussed work, the sexual tension diminished just enough to hover on a workable level and she found herself enjoying their conversation. And it wasn’t long before their meals arrived. The fish on her plate looked mouth-watering. Ryan’s dish also looked good…until she remembered what it was.

  “You know,” he said, “you should really try it before you pull faces. It’s delicious.”

  Ella’s eyes flew to his in surprise – she hadn’t realised she’d pulled a face. “It’s a native animal.”

  “You’re eating barramundi, right?”

  “But it’s just a big ugly fish. That was Skippy. That was a cute, furry Australian icon. And you’re eating it.”

  “Mmm hmm, here.” He dropped a decent sized chunk onto her plate and she reeled away. “Try it, Skippy’s delicious.”

  “Oh, yuck Ryan!” she complained, her stomach rolling. He grinned and waved as Hannah and Jill appeared. “Good evening, ladies.”

  “Hi,” Hannah greeted, studied his plate. “Roo?”

  “Yep.”

  “Looks good.”

  Lexi pulled a face similar to Ella’s. “I think I’ll stick to the fish. Ella, are you really going to try that?”

  ‘Not even if you put a gun to my head. Take it away, Ryan. Right now.”

  “Bossy,” he grumbled, but did as asked, then asked Hannah, “How’s Ben?”

  “All good. Everything’s going ahead in leaps and bounds from an advertising perspective. Montague’s being plagued with offers of deals and requests for advertising opportunities from businesses.”

  “It’ll be even bigger once the show actually airs.” Ryan swallowed the last of his wine and topped up their glasses.

  “I heard you took the chopper up today,” Hannah remarked.

  “We got some good shots, did a few interesting fly-bys.”

  “I thought that was a plane thing,” Ella commented.

  “It’s a cocky male pilot thing,” Hannah replied with a roll of her eyes. “I’m surprised he didn’t jump out of it.”

  “I would have.” Ryan smirked. “But as I was the only pilot, I would have crashed an expensive helicopter.”

  “Show off,” Jill scoffed. Ella gaped, pulled herself together. That’s who he is, she reminded herself, what he does. Crazy stuff, sometimes death-defying stuff.

  “You ok?” Ryan frowned catching her look of distress.

  Ella blinked, nodded. “Yep.” Why wouldn’t she be? It wasn’t her concern if he killed himself. So why was there a distinctly ill feeling in the pit of her stomach at the thought of him jumping from a helicopter? She shouldn’t be concerned, she shouldn’t be this attracted to him, and damn it – she shouldn’t be having so much trouble getting him out of her head.

  She played with her meal, looked up again and he smiled at her. The look in his eyes was curiosity tinged with heat and immediately her pulse scrambled. Hannah said something that drew his attention and Ella went back to her brooding.

  He was just so damn hard to resist. And who wouldn’t be attracted to a man like Ryan Edwards? They’d been in each other’s pockets for the last couple of days, in each other’s company for weeks, and this constant state of awareness he had her in would put anyone out of sorts.

  So why resist? Her inner voice taunted her. After all, she’d done her best to hold him at arm’s-length for weeks and it hadn’t killed the charge, hadn’t dulled the attraction. Why not
take what was on offer and get him out of her system?

  Startled by her own idea, her eyes flew back to the object of her thoughts. He was watching her, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. And what was he – a mind reader? She felt some colour come into her face and turned her attention to her wine, taking a long swallow.

  Perhaps if she could just scratch that itch everything could go back to normal. Ryan laughed at something Hannah said but the moment her eyes went to his face he turned his back on her. It was magnetic, the way their eyes always found each other like that, locked. His darkened. “You finished mauling that?”

  “Huh? Oh, I’m full.”

  “Good. Excuse us ladies.” Ryan stood and helped a surprised Ella to her feet.

  Ella caught Jill’s small smile and she attempted to pull her hand from his. “Honestly Ryan, I don’t need to be dragged everywhere.”

  “No, occasionally you need to be carried.”

  Ella could only imagine Jill’s face – not to mention Hannah’s – after that comment because she wasn’t brave enough to look.

  “Ryan…” she tried again as soon as they were into the next carriage and out of earshot. “What is it with you and this manhandling thing you’ve got going on?”

  He stopped and gave her a knock-your-socks-off smile. “You mentioned you didn’t like being touched. I figure I’m just getting you used to it.”

  “You figure…I don’t need…” she was cut off when he took her face firmly in his hands and swooped down for a long, slow kiss that had any further complaints well and truly dying on her lips.

  “On that front at least, it seems we don’t have a problem.”

  Ella gasped. “You arrogant…”

  This time he stepped in, plastering her between himself and the carriage wall as his mouth ravaged, demanded, with an urgency she hadn’t felt from him before. His hips moulded to hers, she could clearly feel his arousal and felt a lightning-fast answering response from deep within herself. A small sound escaped her throat and his hands gentled, his mouth slowed, seduced. A tremor shimmered through her, her body began to simmer and she clutched his waist, her arms too tightly trapped to move more than a few inches.

  His lips lifted from hers just enough for his forehead to rest against hers. “Arrogance has nothing to do with it. I want you Ella and I know you want me. We need to get all the other crap out of the way because it’s driving me nuts.”

  Ella acknowledged the ache inside herself that just wouldn’t go away and decided that rationalised her decision. “Ok.”

  “Ok?” Everything about him stilled. “Before I so much as breathe you might want to clarify that.”

  Scratch the itch, Ella repeated to herself; that’s all she needed to do. Liar, a small part of her working brain taunted. She didn’t listen. Eyes on his she freed her arms and ran her hands up the front of his shirt to wrap around his neck. “I’m saying yes, Ryan,” she whispered, her mouth within a millimetre of his. “How clear would you like me to be?”

  “That’ll do.” He scooped her up and strode down the aisle, his mouth finding hers and barely leaving it until he released her to unlock his door. When it opened, he took her hand and led her inside.

  Suddenly nervous, Ella took a long, shaky breath. Ryan lifted a hand and traced a finger along her cheekbone and down across her lips. Lifting her hand still held in his other, to his lips, his teeth grazed the sensitive skin at her wrist and kissed the tips of her fingers, staring at her, watching her eyes widen, her pulse beat rapidly at the base of her throat.

  Ella’s heart felt as though it may at any moment leap from her chest, her whole arm was tingling from the touch of his mouth against her skin. And that’s just my hand, she thought in amazement.

  “Take your hair out,” he murmured, the hungry look in his eyes igniting sparks of anticipation inside her already heated system.

  She lifted her free hand to her hair and a moment later it tumbled out around her face and over her shoulders.

  His gasp of appreciation was audible. “God, you’re heart-stopping.” As though his control simply snapped, he pulled her into him, his hands diving into that hair and holding on, dragging her mouth to his for an explosive kiss that left her breathless. Eventually he tore his mouth from hers to move down the column of her throat, his teeth nipping, his tongue sliding along her collarbone. He reached the straps of her dress and nudged them from her shoulders. The trembling that had started in the pit of Ella’s stomach spread down to her limbs, and she closed her eyes, helpless against the sensations assaulting her.

  “You have no idea what you do to me,” he murmured, his hands moving up and down her body as though he couldn’t get enough of just touching her. His mouth made its way back to the base of her throat, to her ear, to her lips, while his fingers found the zipper of her dress.

  As he lowered it, the material slid silently from her body and pooled at her feet. He took a moment to just look at her; the expression on his face was pure male appreciation. His jaw was clenched; his body rigid. He was restraining himself, Ella gathered, with difficulty, and her entire being was a mix of nerves and red-hot desire.

  With unsteady fingers she reached for the buttons of his shirt, undoing them with difficulty. His chest was all hard planes and strong angles and she tentatively placed her hands there, running her fingers lightly along its contours and watching the muscles play under her touch.

  “Ella…” He bent his head, his tongue tracing the outline of one nipple, then the other through the sheer material of her bra. Then her breasts were free and he took one nipple into his mouth, suckled greedily and she gasped, feeling the pull right down in her very core. Heat flooded there; pooled.

  Her hands slipped up over the his chest to his broad shoulders, helpless to do anything but hold on as he knelt in front of her, his mouth tracing a path down her abdomen, his fingers sliding the last scrap of clothing down the long length of her legs.

  His hands caressed her thighs, then his mouth found her and she jolted with a mix of shock and exquisite pleasure. Everything ached, everything burned, then his tongue began to stroke and she cried out; a desperate plea as the pressure building inside her impossibly intensified. She felt the wave, fought desperately to hold on. “Ryan…”

  “Let me,” he urged, his voice thick with passion. She was shaking her head, attempting to step back, to take a moment to get herself under just enough control, but he wouldn’t let her catch her breath. His body slid back up hers, his eyes locked on her wide-eyes and flushed skin and a strong arm around her waist both held and supported her as his fingers took over. She couldn’t hold on, couldn’t prevent the shattering explosion that rocked her, sent her over the edge. This time his mouth absorbed her startled cry, as her body convulsed and her legs all but collapsed underneath her.

  Ryan scooped her up and laid her gently on the bed. Immediately beside her he stroked the hair from her face and kissed her hungrily.

  Ella’s head was spinning, her body still recovering from the orgasm, and even then, as his hands skilfully played over her body, she felt the pressure begin to build again. Feeling defenceless against him, she struggled to do more than simply submit to his touch and reached for his belt, her shaking hands undoing the buckle. Ryan rolled off the bed, taking care of the rest of his clothing.

  Ella’s eyes took in the hard body, his obvious desire. She shuddered, her muscles clenching in anticipation. He was so male, so big and strong and powerful. She knew he was holding back with the barest scrap of control, yet he stood, allowing her to see her fill.

  She couldn’t remember ever feeling so vulnerable, so unsure of her ability to handle a partner. What he’d just done to her was shocking, unprecedented. She had to take back some control. When he opened a drawer and pulled out a foil packet she took it, opening it herself. Slowly, she rolled it over his hard, hot length.

  He groaned, moved against her hand and his own breath shuddered out. Then he was beside her, but before he could pin h
er under him she rolled, sat up and straddled him. With a long, hot look she positioned herself over him, slowly taking him inside her.

  Her body, adjusted, accepted him and she began to move. Throwing her head back she closed her eyes and rode him, revelling in the increasing urgency she could feel coming from Ryan as he clasped her hips and moved with her. He lunged up and dragged her down on top of him, his hands ploughing into her hair and holding her captive, kissing her feverishly and rolling her under him.

  He’d done it again – he’d taken over but there was nothing she could do, she was powerless against him, his demand refuelling the needs of her own body. His movements became more desperate, harder, faster. Again her body exploded with release, shattering her, even as with a few more powerful thrusts he emptied himself, and held onto her as though he may never let her go.

  Both hearts pounded, slowed in some magical rhythm. Breathing evened out. Ryan slid off, pulling Ella into his arms as her body continued to pulsate with aftershocks.

  Ella supposed she’d known, theoretically, it would be like that: explosive, earth-shattering, mind-numbing sex.

  She just hadn’t realised the full reality of what that meant.

  She’d lost the plot. She’d never let the few partners she’d chosen take over like that; never wanted them to. At least she’d given something back after…oh God, after he’d done that.”

  “Analysing already?”

  She tilted her head up, saw him smiling lazily. There was something else in that smile she couldn’t fully allow herself to register; a tenderness she couldn’t quite accept because it squeezed at her heart.

  And her heart was off limits.

  Slightly terrified, she tried to get up. Ryan snagged her and before she could argue the point he was on top of her, his expression becoming slightly puzzled. “You ok?”

  “Of course,” she replied, her voice sounding hollow even to her. “You’re ah…very good at that.”

  He smiled again and gently brushed her hair from her face, just about turning her inside out with the warmth in his eyes. “We’re very good at that.” He brushed his lips over hers, his fingers tracing the contours of her face with a light touch.